ANDUREN ELIYATA first came to my attention when it was the beneficiary of the AUSTRALIA SRI LANKA ASSOCIATION of ADELAIDE’s charitable hand in 2019 after a successful evening of dancing and joli-kireema. It is based in Sydney and has been operational since 2014 and focuses on the donation of solar-powered units to outlying and needy households in Sri Lanka via a circuit of schools, religious dignitaries and do-gooders. Its principal hands and aides receive no payment.
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Renuka Sadanandan, in Sunday Times, 22 September 2019, where the title is “Lanka’s friend in need and deed“
J.R. Jayewardene entertaining guests on the lawn of the President’s House once asked British MP Michael Morris if he smoked. When he replied no, the President inquired if his father did. Receiving a positive answer he presented Morris with a box of Cuban cigars, saying that President Fidel Castro regularly sent them to him. Back home in the UK, his father called to thank Morris for the cigars, informing him that he cut them in half as they were so strong! “You can’t cut Castro’s cigars in half Father,” he recalls his horrified protest.
Michael Morris aka Lord Michael Naseby
Filed under centre-periphery relations, charitable outreach, cultural transmission, democratic measures, economic processes, education, governance, heritage, historical interpretation, irrigation, island economy, life stories, modernity & modernization, politIcal discourse, power politics, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, travelogue, unusual people, welfare & philanthophy, world events & processes
Michael Roberts
In working up perceptive readings of the Sri Lankan scenarios presented by the Tamil activist Narendran Rajasingham in Colombo Telegraph and other outlets I will proceed chronologically. This collection includes (B) his engagements with the Tamil peoples who survived the last stages of the war and ended up as internal refugees in IDP camps or elsewhere in 2009/10; (C) his discerning evaluations of the Tamil death toll; and (D) his forthright and critical reading of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Victory Day Speech of 13th May 2013 in no less an outlet than Colombo Telegraph; and (E) some biting exchanges within Colombo Telegraph when he countered Tamil protagonists via ethnographic data and incisive contentions in clarification of the war and its aftermath.
One finding is a Word File which he sent me on 23 August 2010 with assessments of the political scenario within the state of Thamilīlam in late 2004/05 – an assessment gathered in the course of his short sojourn there with his brother Jayadevan Rajasingham.[1]
Filed under accountability, authoritarian regimes, communal relations, Eelam, ethnicity, historical interpretation, human rights, island economy, landscape wondrous, language policies, life stories, LTTE, military strategy, nationalism, politIcal discourse, power politics, prabhakaran, Rajapaksa regime, refugees, self-reflexivity, Sinhala-Tamil Relations, sri lankan society, Tamil civilians, Tamil Tiger fighters, trauma, truth as casualty of war, unusual people, war reportage, world events & processes
Courtesy of Fabian Schokman whose interest in Sri Lankan affairs is as deep as searching — the fruits to be seen soon I trust. ………And it all began with the Thuppahi item on Sister Aloha — courtesy of Myrna Setunga
Filed under architects & architecture, British colonialism, cultural transmission, economic processes, education, ethnicity, heritage, historical interpretation, landscape wondrous, life stories, patriotism, performance, photography, politIcal discourse, self-reflexivity, sri lankan society, unusual people, world events & processes
Being treated to lunch in the august upstair chambers of the Dutch Burgher Union by Fabian Schokman opened its ‘treasures’ to my eyes. These amateur photographs convey three ‘tales’ to those interested, two pictorial, one written.
Dr. Rajasingham Narendran, in Sri Lanka Guardian, 7 February 2009, where the title is “Rise and Fall of the LTTE – An Overview” …. with highlighting emphasis being impositions by The Editor, Thuppahi
Sri Lankan armed forces have almost ended the capacity of the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) to engage in conventional war in the near future. They may also succeed in severely curtailing attempts by the LTTE to resort to sabotage, terrorism and socio-economic disruptions, subsequently. They have also recovered almost the entirety of the territory once held by the LTTE. These achievements, contrary to the expectations of many, have not only attracted the attention of the world, but also its implicit support. However, the plight of the 250,000 Tamil civilians, believed held by the LTTE in the jungles of Mullaitivu is weighing heavy on the world’s conscience. How the Sri Lankan government and armed forces will deal with the issue of these civilians, is being scrutinized closely by a concerned world and the Tamil-speaking people at large.
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Narendran Rajasingham, in TamilWeek, 30 August 2009** … where the title is “Internally displaced persons: The new front of an old war in Sri Lanka”
Since the defeat of the LTTE on 18th May’ 2009 at Nandikadal, the issue of the 300,000 ‘Internally Displaced persons (IDPs)’ has become the new front to fight an old war. People who have not been to the IDP camps in Chettikulam have been very vociferous in condemning the conditions and the very existence of these camps. Objective reports based on contextual realities by those who have visited these camps and talked to a cross section of the IDPs are dismissed as propaganda on behalf of the government. Other reports of those who visited these camps, but have highlighted problems that fit in with the agenda of those fighting in the new front, are gobbled up with glee. The reports of those who have not visited these camps and are relying on second hand information and photographs, are accepted as the gospel truth. The desire to condemn and use the situation as an opportunity to continue the old Eelam agenda under a new guise is overwhelmingly obvious.
Rajasingham et al with General Gunaratne 
young IDPs at school –Pic deployed in TamilWeek
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This tiny cluster of Tamil personnel came from Australia, Germany, UK and Dubai and were clearly not enmeshed in the tales predominant in the LTTE networks abroad. Though Dr Narendran Rajasingham was working in Saudi Arabia at this point of time, note that he had a house in Colombo and stronger roots in the island than the others (as far as I can work out). This report, it seems, appeared first in German in ”LTTE watch” (see the Google reference — https://lttewatch.wordpress.com/2009/04/13/ltte-ist-immun-gegen-internationalen-druck/). To stress this flavour’, the last section is also repeated in Deutsch.
Manjula Fernando in April 13, 2009• lttewatch
Most issues that have plagued Tamils thirty years ago have become irrelevant. Security, law and justice are the most important issues now. The people of the north are ready for political change. If you talk to people in Jaffna, they will tell you that they no longer want the LTTE in their vicinity.
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MA Nuhman, in Colombo Telegraph, 11 September 2019, where the title is “Remembering Professor S H Hasbullah”
Remembering my dear friend Hasbullah (11.09.1950–25.08.2018) is personally a very emotional, difficult and painful task for me. We were very close and intimate friends for nearly three decades. Hasbullah’s untimely sudden death was a great loss to me. Even after one year of his demise my memories of him are fresh and heavy in my mind. It may take a long time for me to recover, for he made an impact on my life. He was such a dynamic personality.
Sarath De Alwis, in Sunday Observer, 14 September 2019, where the title runs “Death of Truth at Shangri-La”
Actioning the Blueprint’ was the title of the presentation. The venue was the Shangri-La hotel in Colombo. The packed audience included everybody who was somebody in industry, commerce, and other professional disciplines.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a determined contender. He is well on his way to the presidency; a hazardous prospect that should send chills down the spines of those who cherish essential human freedoms, specifically the freedom from fear that interferes with the citizen’s right of democratic dissent. This essay is intended for my fellow citizens who are not morons to be mesmerized by the magic of a monster.Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a determined contender. He is well on his way to the presidency; a hazardous prospect that should send chills down the spines of those who cherish essential human freedoms, specifically the freedom from fear that interferes with the citizen’s right of democratic dissent.
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thuppahi
